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A Study in Pink
A Study In Pink is the first episode of BBC's TV series Sherlock's first series which aired for the first time on 25 July 2010. Summary The police investigate the deaths of a series of people who all appear to have committed suicide by taking a poisonous pill. They turn to their unofficial consultant, Sherlock Holmes, who deduces various elements pointing to a serial killer. Meanwhile, Holmes is introduced to John Watson, and the pair immediately move into a flat in Baker Street. Plot Dr. John Watson, an ex-army doctor injured in the war in Afghanistan, is having a nightmare with images of armed conflict and injured people that make him wake up in sweat and tears. His psychotherapist encourages him to start writing everything that happens to him in his personal blog as a means to cope with his stress symptoms and his trust issues, but Watson replies that nothing happens to him. October 12th: A well-dressed man, Sir Jeffrey Patterson, is talking with his personal assistant on his cell phone, asking for her help because he has gone to the wrong train station. She tells him that he has no choice but to catch a cab, something that he is obviously not used to doing. It is also obvious that the two are having an affair. He is seen later looking scared and taking a capsule from a small glass jar and eating it, then having a seizure on the floor of an abandoned office building. Later, the dead man's wife is seen giving a press release on how unexplained his suicide was while the PA cries on the background. {C}{C}{C}{C November 26th: Two young men walk under the rain under one umbrella. One, James Phillimore, tries unsuccessfully to hail a cab, then decides to go home to find another umbrella. His friend Gary Jenkins waits for a while and walks back to search for him, but the friend never comes back. James is seen crying in an empty gym while taking a capsule from a jar. We see a newspaper headline hit the front page, announcing the 18-year-old's suicide. January 27th: A wild party is going on to celebrate the nomination of Beth Davenport, a local MP, to the Ministry of Transport. Two of the MP's assistants meet at the bar. One of them has removed the car keys from the MP's bag, who has had more than one too many. They both suddenly look around, but their boss is not there any more. She is seen by her car, looking for her car keys, then looking around. She is then seen in a fenced yard full of rental containers crying, with a jar with capsules by her hand. Later, the Metropolitan Police Service holds a press conference about the MP's death. Sergeant Sally Donovan (Vinette Robinson) confirms that the MP's suicide resembles those of Sir Jeffrey Patterson and James Phillimore, and hence all three incidents are being treated as linked. Detective Inspector Lestrade notes that all three suicides happened in locations where the victims had no reason to be and they all took the same poison, but apart from that, there are no other links between the victims although the police are sure that they will find it. At this moment, every single cell phone in the room receives a text message with the word "WRONG!". Lestrade states that they have their best people investigating the case, and again they all receive the text message "WRONG!" When questioned about precautionary measures, Lestrade states that so far, there is no reason for anyone to take alarm, and again the text message "WRONG!" is sent to all except Lestrade, who receives a different one "You know where to find me. SH". Once the conference is over, Donovan complaints to Lestrade about the behaviour of the message sender, but Lestrade says that he does not even know how 'he' does it, so he is unable to stop it. Watson is walking in the park when he is stopped by another man, Mike Stamford , who recognises him from their time as interns at St Bartholomew's Hospital. They both sit to have a coffee and we see Watson's left hand spasm when talking about the army. Watson explains to his old friend that he might have to leave London, since he cannot afford an apartment on an army pension and it is very unlikely that he might find someone willing to share with him. Stanford tells him that he is the second person today that told him that same thing, and brings Watson to meet that person at the morgue. In the morgue, Sherlock Holmes is performing an experiment by beating a corpse with a riding crop to prove an alibi and ignoring the clumsy efforts of the mousy assistant Molly to flirt with him. In the lab upstairs, Sherlock and John meet for the first time. Holmes asks Mike Stanford for his phone because he needs to text and Watson offers his to him. He asks Watson if he had been in Afghanistan or Iraq, much to Stanford's amusement, then asks Watson if he would mind having a flatmate that plays the violin when he is thinking and goes on without speaking for days, to which Watson wonders how Holmes knows that he is looking for a flatmate. Holmes reveals that he knows that Watson is an army doctor invalided home from Afghanistan who has a brother of whom he disapproves because of his drinking habits and because he walked out on his wife and that his therapist rightly thinks that his limp is psychosomatic. Then he gives his name, and his address, 221B Baker Street, before dashing off. In another place, a woman with pink skirt, jacket and shoes takes from the floor with a trembling hand a small jar with the suicide pills. Watson and Holmes meet the next day to see the apartment. It is owned by a lady, Mrs. Hudson, a widow who is giving Holmes a special deal because he ensured the conviction and execution of her husband in Florida. As they settle in, Holmes eagerly asks for his opinion and is a bit hurt when Watson seems skeptical about Holmes' claims, prompting him to retaliate and tell him that he could read Watson's military career from his face and leg and Watson's brother's drinking habits on the mobile phone. Watson asks how, but Holmes does not answer. Mrs. Hudson intervenes, asking Holmes why he is not investigating the three serial suicides, just the type of case that would suit him. Holmes looks at the window and sees a police car with its lightbar flashing parked outside, and deduces that there has been a fourth suicide and that something must be different this time. Lestrade enters the room running and answers Holmes' questions with an address and the fact that this fourth victim is different in that she wrote a note. Holmes asks about who is in charge of forensics, but when he hears the name of Anderson, he complains that Anderson would not work with him and that he needs an assistant. He tells Lestrade that he will go anyway, and as soon as Lestrade has left the room, Holmes invites Watson along to view the crime scene. As they ride the cab to the scene, Holmes is texting on his phone while Watson stares. Holmes finally tells Watson to ask the questions in his mind. The first ones are about where they are going and what does Holmes do exactly, to which Holmes replies that they are going to a crime scene where he will assist the police, as he is a consulting detective (the only one of his kind). Watson replies that the police do not consult amateurs, and Holmes retaliates by explaining exactly how he deduced that Watson was an army doctor by his bearing and his comments about working in the lab in his day: *That he was injured abroad was deduced by his tan and his limp, so Iraq or Afganistan, and the fact that his limp was psychosomatic because he seemed to forget about it when distracted. *That he had a therapist provided by the army was no great logical leap. *As for the brother, Watson's expensive mobile phone, a model only six months old, had an inscription: "Harry Watson from Clara XXX". It also had scratches and small damage around the port where he plugs in his charger. **From that, Holmes deduces that the phone was a gift from a family member, but not of an older generation, who has a very heavy drinking problem, because his hands tremble when he plugs in the phone to charge each night, and who is walking out on his wife because of his eagerness to get rid of her gifts to him. **He also wants to keep in touch but Watson does not go to him for help, so Watson must disapprove of him. *And yes, the police do not consult amateurs, but Holmes has just proven that he is not one. Watson replies that it was amazing, extraordinary, to Holmes' surprise. Arriving at the crime scene, Holmes asks if he got something wrong on his earlier deductions. It is clear that somehow he wants Watson's approval. Watson confirms the bad sibling relationship, the divorce and the drinking, but just one little error: Harry is short for Harriet - Watson's brother is in fact a sister. Holmes acknowledges that he is not infallible. They are stopped at the yellow tape by Sergeant Donovan, who calls Holmes a "freak", to which Holmes retaliates by telling her that she did not make it home last night. Watson is introduced as a colleague, to Donovan's disbelief. Anderson, who is one of the forensic investigators, warns Holmes that he does not want the crime scene contaminated, and Holmes asks him if his wife is away for long. Anderson tries to dismiss it as a trick, but Holmes points out that his deodorant is all over Sally and that the state of her knees indicates that she spent quite some time kneeling recently, leaving them both embarrassed while he and Watson enter the building. Once inside they are greeted by Lestrade who brings them to a room where the victim, identified as a woman by the name of Jennifer Wilson, lies facedown. Holmes approaches the body and starts finding clues: *He notices the message "Rache" scratched by the dying woman's fingernails ("Rache" - German noun for revenge), then thinks again and completes the word into "Rachel" (lesson learned from the Harry/Harriet error). *Her coat is wet, even on the inside of the collar, but the pocket umbrella is dry. *Her jewelry is clean except for the well worn wedding ring (unhappily married for 10+ years) which is polished on the inside (frequently removed = serial adulteress) but dirty on the out. Anderson appears and tries to show up by pointing out that the victim must be German. Holmes closes the door on his nose while browsing on his smartphone and says that she is not German but from Cardiff and was in town for one night. He then asks Watson to examine the body, forcing Lestrade to acknowledge Watson as Holmes's assistant thus making the point that if the police want Holmes' help, they have to do it his way. Watson tries to comply, but he is only able to say that the victim probably choked to death while seizing. Lestrade interrupts and asks Holmes for his conclusions, which are: *The victim was a professional woman, probably in the media (from all of the pink clothing), a serial adulteress (the jewelry), and was from Cardiff (wet clothes = rain two to three hours away from London, inside of the collar wet but the umbrella dry = heavy wind, meteorological information = Cardiff) and in town for one night by the size of the luggage (small mud splatters on right leg = small wheeled suitcase). Watson cannot stop making comments on how brilliant he finds Holmes' deductions (to Holmes' surprised delight). Lestrade tells Holmes that there was no suitcase, which triggers another set of deductions while Sherlock runs downstairs: the victim must have been accompanied by someone who took the suitcase. That means that she was driven here and somehow forced to commit suicide by a serial killer, and indicating that the killer took the suitcase. It also means that the other three victims were all murders. Watson is left at the crime scene alone with the police and makes his way to the exit. Donovan warns him to stay away from Holmes, because he is a psychopath and, one day, he is going to get bored and start committing crimes himself. As Watson limps towards a main road in search of a cab, a phone booth rings. The same happens to the phone in a shop as he passes by and then yet another booth elsewhere. The third time, he picks it up and a voice calls his name tells him to check three security cameras on the vicinity: All three move and focus away from the booth towards the other side of the street while a black sedan arrives, and Watson is instructed to enter it, which he does. The woman in the car, Anthea, ignores his questions and keys on the mobile. He is driven to a warehouse where a tall man leaning on an umbrella awaits. He offers him a seat, but Watson defiantly remains standing. The mysterious man interrogates Watson about his relationship with Holmes, to which Watson replies that he met Holmes just yesterday, and then asks the man if he is Holmes' friend. The man replies that Holmes does not have friends, but he is the closest thing: an enemy, arch-enemy actually. Watson's mobile tells him that he has a text message: it is Holmes saying "Baker Street. Come at once if convenient. SH". The man asks Watson if he plans to continue his association with Holmes, to which Watson replies that it is none of his business. The man now tells Watson that he is concerned about Holmes and offers Watson money in exchange for information on him, but Watson refuses while another text message rings: "If inconvenient, come anyway. SH". The man tells Watson that he is very loyal very quickly to Holmes and asks him if despite the trust issues described by his therapist, he has decided to put his trust in Holmes. Watson turns back to leave, but the man sends a parting shot: his left hand (the one with the intermittent tremor) tells that he is going to move in with Holmes, despite multiple warnings to stay away. Angrily, Watson turns around and the man asks him to show him is left hand. It is not trembling, even when the man touches it. The man tells Watson that when he walks with Holmes, he sees the battlefield again, and that he should fire his therapist: Watson's hand does not tremble because he is haunted by war, or it would be trembling now, but because he misses it. Watson's phone signals a third text message: "Could be dangerous. SH" and Watson follows the woman back to the car, where he asks her to stop by his old apartment to take his gun, and then drive him to Baker Street. He also tries unsuccessfully to flirt with her. When Watson gets home, Holmes asks him to text the message "What happened at Lauriston Gdns? I must have blacked out. 22 Northumberland St. Please Come," to Jennifer Wilson's phone number. Meanwhile, Holmes retrieves a small pink suitcase from the kitchen and opens it, adding sarcastically to a surprised Watson that despite the suitcase and the text message, he is not the killer. Then Holmes explains to Watson that he deduced that the killer drove the woman to Lauriston Gardens but made the mistake of driving away with the suitcase, a very colourful one (pink) which will draw attention especially on a man. He had to have gotten rid of it quickly, so Holmes searched for potential dump sites near the crime scene located in areas accessible by car but isolated and found the right skip in less that one hour. There is one thing missing: her mobile phone. A serial adulterer would be careful where she leaves her phone, so it is possible that the killer has it, on purpose or by mistake. The text message that Watson sent could only have meaning to the killer, so when Watson's phone rings, Holmes realises that the hunt is on and asks Watson to come with him. Watson tells Holmes about Donovan's warning, that Holmes gets off on this, to which Holmes replies that he said "dangerous", and Watson is here, proving that he is just as bad. Holmes and Watson walk to a small Italian restaurant overlooking 22 Northumberland Street, where the owner, an old "friend" of Holmes, insists on serving him and his "date" a nice free dinner. Watson tries unsuccessfully to explain that he is not Holmes' date but eats the dinner anyway while Holmes ignores the food and watches the street. Watson profits for the moment to ask some private questions to Holmes. Holmes believes that the killer is someone who can stalk and approach victims on the streets of London without arousing any suspicion. At that moment, a taxi stops in front of 22 Northumberland Street and the passenger in the back looks around but does not get out. Holmes leaves the restaurant in a hurry, and Watson follows, his cane forgotten by the chair, at the same time as the taxi moves away. Watson memorises the number plate but Holmes visualises in his head the route (in an overhead grid view of the streets, showing traffic lights, one-way streets, and detours) that the taxi must follow to reach the closest main street and sees an alternative route via the alleyways and rooftops that will allow him to intercept it. He pursues it with Watson close to his heels but when they reach the taxi and meet the passenger, Holmes realises that he is just an American tourist newly arrived from Los Angeles (judging from a tag on his luggage that says "LAX-LHR"), meaning the killer did not make it to the rendezvous point. Holmes and Watson run back to Baker Street and, while still at the entrance hall, the doorbell rings: it's the restaurant owner, with Watson's cane. Holmes texted him to have it sent back as a housewarming gift to Watson, since there is little doubt now that he will be staying with Holmes. Mrs. Hudson greets them, panicking, because the police are upstairs and Holmes and Watson go up to find their living room being systematically savaged by Lestrade and his people on a pretend drug bust. Lestrade wants to make a point too, plus recover the evidence from the suitcase that he was sure Holmes would find. Watson laughs at the drugs excuse but Holmes asks him to be quiet, indicating that Holmes might have had some problems of that kind in the past. Anderson is all for arresting Holmes as the murder suspect, but Lestrade wants Holmes' insights. "Rachel" turns out to be the name of the murdered woman's stillborndaughter, dead for fourteen years. Holmes wonders why the victim would have carved her daughter's name as she was dying, unsatisfied by the emotional explanations. Mrs. Hudson enters and tells Holmes that his taxi is here, and then all start talking until Holmes shouts at them to shut up while he thinks. He makes a few startling deductions: *The victim was clever: she planted the phone on the killer. *The word she tried to scratch on the floor, "Rachel," is actually the password to her e-mail account. *While all the rest are looking bewildered, Holmes explains that since the phone has a GPS locating device, her email account will access its location. Watson looks at the website, but the result indicates that the phone must be in the apartment at Baker Street, which is impossible since the killer used it after Holmes and Watson texted him. Outside, the cabbie still waits for his passenger, and then is when Holmes realises who fits the profile of the killer (all the victims were looking for a cab when abducted) and who has the phone inside his pocket in Backer Street. While they all look for the phone, Holmes receives a text message ("COME WITH ME") and decides to follow without telling anyone. He goes downstairs and talks to the cabbie, who issues a challenge: if Holmes calls the police now, he will surrender, but he will never tell how he made the victims kill themselves unless Holmes comes with him. Holmes enters the taxi while Watson looks through the window. Lestrade and his people leave with Lestrade giving his opinion of Holmes. Watson, putting his faith on Holmes' deductions, keeps on trying to locate the phone via the website. Holmes heads downstairs and gets in the cab. The cabbie admits that he recognised him when he chased his car. He had been warned about him and he read his website. Holmes asks him who gave the warning, but gets no answer. The cabbie drives to an empty school building and briefly threatens Holmes with a gun, but it is unnecessary since they both know that Holmes will see it to the end. Watson sees the phone's new location on the website and rushes off. Sherlock and the cabbie sit face to face in a large study room. In an obvious allusion to the film The Princess Bride, where the Man in Black challenges Vizzini to select from two cups poisoned with Iocane, the cabbie similarly challenges Holmes to a supreme battle of wits, to the death. The cabbie puts on the table two bottles, each with a large pill in it, and tells Holmes to select one. When Holmes selects the pill that he deduces to be safe, they will eat the pills together, and find out who is the "proper genius" with the superior wits, and who is dead. This was also how the previous murders had been commited. Holmes asks, "Both bottles are, of course, identical?" The cabbie responds "In every way." Holmes has deduced the correct choice to make. The cabbie brags that this is not a game of chance, but chess, confidently insisting again it is not chance, but genius. Watson enters a building, searching it frantically and calling out for Holmes, who has now deduced that the cabbie is estranged from his children for 3 years and has been told that he is dying. The cabbie confirms he could die of an aneurism at any moment, with the next breath. Holmes suggests to the cabbie that he could simply walk out, refusing the challenge, but the cabbie pulls out a pistol to force Holmes to choose a pill. Only by knowing the allusion to The Princess Bride is the secret of this battle of wits revealed. Both pills are deadly poison, but the cabbie is immune to the poison. Knowing this, Holmes wisely chooses to be shot, having also discerned the "pistol" to be a harmless cigarette lighter. The cabbie pulls the trigger, and the lighter lights up. Having the information that he wants, Holmes gets up to to leave, saying he looks forward to the court case, but the cabbie asks him if he figured it out, and taunts Holmes to choose a pill again, just to prove that he indeed has the superior wits to deduce the right bottle, saying that driven by boredom and an addiction to thrillseeking, Holmes is simply unable to resist the challenge. Holmes having called the challenge "child's play", picks the bottle in front of the cabbie and they both face each other. Watson, searching frantically, sees Holmes and the cabbie from a building across the street. With the cabbie edging Holmes, both men prepare to take their pills when a crack shot through a window hits the cabbie square in the chest. Holmes runs to and looks through the bullet hole in the broken window, to the building across the street, but does not see the shooter. Holmes returns to the cabbie and asks if he made the right choice, but the cabbie just smiles. Angry, Holmes steps on the cabbie's shoulder, demanding the name of the serial killer's sponsor. In pain the cabbie screams Moriarty, and dies. The incentive for the murders: Moriority promised the cabbie to send money to support his children for each successful murder. These unsolved serial murders would attract Holmes, the intended target. Moriority presumed that Holmes would not be clever enough to survive the battle of wits. Outside, Scotland Yard has surrounded the perimeter and Sherlock is wearing a shock blanket, since he's being treated for shock. Lestrade questions Sherlock about the shooter and he starts to make some deductions (crack shot, acclimatised to violence but not random since he/she waited for Holmes to be in danger so, probably from the military…) before realizing it must be John. He turns to Lestrade and pretends to be ranting nonsense because of the shock and rejoins Watson outside the police lines. Watson pretends to have just arrived but Holmes tells him that he knows the truth and expresses his concern for Watson, who has just killed a man. Watson admits that, but states that the driver was not a nice man, plus an awful cabbie! They both start giggling as they leave and Watson asks Holmes if he would have taken the pill. Holmes tries to deny it, but Watson says that Holmes gets his kicks risking his life to prove that he is clever, which just proves that he is an idiot like the rest of the human race. At that moment, the tall man who "kidnapped" Watson appears and Holmes recognises him. He wants Holmes to join forces with him. A short squabble between the two reveals that the mysterious man is Sherlock's brother Mycroft Holmes. Mycroft insists that he's actually a minor British government official, but Sherlock informs Watson that he is no such thing. Holmes and Watson walk away to a Dim Sum dinner while they talk about the new mystery man: Moriarty. Mycroft makes a note with Anthea to have Sherlock's and John's surveillance status upgraded. Cast *Sherlock Holmes ... Benedict Cumberbatch *Dr John Watson ... Martin Freeman *DI Lestrade ... Rupert Graves *Mrs Hudson ... Una Stubbs *Molly Hooper ... Louise Brealey *Jeff Hope (Taxi driver killer) ... Phil Davis *Sgt Sally Donovan ... Vinette Robinson *Ella ... Tanya Moodie *Helen ... Siobhán Hewlett *Sir Jeffrey Patterson ... William Scott-Masson *Margaret Patterson ... Victoria Wicks *Gary ... Sean Young *Jimmy ... James Duncan *Political Aides ... **Ruth Everett **Syrus Lowe *Beth Davenport ... Katy Maw *Mike Stamford ... David Nellist *Jennifer Wilson ... Lousie Breckon-Richards *Anderson ... Jonathan Aris *Anthea ... Lisa McAllister *Angelo ... Stanley Townsend *Taxi Passenger ... Peter Brooke External link * Comparison between Pilot and first episode Category:Episodes